>> Announcer: From the heart of Silicon Valley,
it's theCUBE.
Covering Cloud-Now's Seventh Annual
Top Women Entrepreneurs in Cloud Innovation Awards.
(upbeat music)
>> Hi, Lisa Martin with theCUBE,
on the ground, at Facebook headquarters.
We're here for the seventh annual
Cloud-Now Top Women Entrepreneurs
in Cloud Innovation Awards.
Excited to welcome, from the AtScale team,
to theCUBE for the first time, Sarah Gerwck
co-founder and chief architect and award winner.
Sarah it's so great to have you on the program.
>> Thanks so much, it's great to be here.
>> So I mention you join a number of your peers
at AtScale who have been on theCUBE,
so we're glad to have you on.
So co-founder of a tech company,
we're here celebrating women who have
not only founded companies, technical entrepreneurs,
venture bad companies, really hard things to achieve.
Give us a little bit of the backstory
about the co-founding opportunity
that you and your co-founders had about what,
5 or so years ago at AtScale.
>> Yeah so a number of the founding team came out of Yahoo
where in the analytics group,
we were seeing that the scale of data
that companies were operating with was changing.
And the operational environment was changing
with both public and private clouds.
And even at Yahoo as a technology company,
we found we were struggling both internally
to develop the tools that we needed
and also to find tools on the market
that served the needs of our business users,
and our executives, and our accounts and sales people.
So we realized that this was just a sort of pivotal moment
in the change of the way business
was being done in the Valley.
That there was this great opportunity
to really help companies connect to their data
wherever that data might be
and whatever types of data they might have.
So about 5 years so ago from your perspective,
you are a STEM kid.
You've got background in
what is it, math and physics. >> That's right.
>> So you knew from the time you were a kid,
I love this, this is what I want to do.
What were some of the things the inspired you as being...
And many industries are challenging, but tech is as well.
That inspired you to not only continue doing what you love,
but to actually step out of,
maybe you'd say a comfort zone
of a large company like a Yahoo
with your co-founders and start something brand new?
>> Sure, I think it's the...
The key thing to me is
you have to sort of just believe in yourself
and be your own champion
because really everybody out there
who accomplishes these things takes these steps
and says this is going to be my moment,
this is going to be my thing.
And I think whether you're a woman,
or a minority, or a man, or anybody,
you just have to be confident in yourself.
Look for the things that you really enjoy.
For me that was math and science and technology.
And just sort of find, here's my niche,
here's something I can be really good at.
And become an expert in that area.
And that's sort of something you walk into over time,
and sort of develop that confidence to sort of strike out
and do some amazing things in your life.
>> How do you find that for those next generation,
or even those that are in tech now,
to go I don't feel confident enough,
or they might feel some pressure.
What's your recommendation on lending themselves
with a mentor, whether it be male, female whatever
to help them just kind of take stock
of what's really important to them?
>> Yeah, I think finding people who have been through it
and talking to them, whether it could be a boss
or a coworker whose done interesting things in their lives,
or an old teacher, or a present teacher,
I think finding somebody who can sort of give you that story
of like here's how I felt
because you have to have confidence in yourself
but really nobody feels confident all the time.
Everybody gets anxious or fearful
before doing something new.
That's part of it and sort of learning to look back
and say well, I've been successful in the past,
and I've overcome these obstacles
and I'm ready for another one.
>> I always think something that's so interesting
is the concept of imposter syndrome.
And how many people suffer from it,
and I didn't even know it existed until a few years ago.
And it level set, Okay, I'm not the only one.
And so I think that's something
that some people are kind of born with
that like regardless, you love math and physics
and you're going to keep going.
But for those, I think even sometimes acknowledging,
oh, this is something that a lot of people
that have confidence now didn't have back in the day.
I can overcome this as well.
>> Right, I think everybody has a little bit
of imposter syndrome at times.
I just think that the world can seem like
such a big and challenging place,
but really it's all made of people
and they all have the same sort of interests and desires.
Not necessarily all the same skills,
but deep down we're all people.
>> Exactly, so tonight though, in the last minute or so,
you have the opportunity to present
in front of one of the most influential females
of our time in technology, Sheryl Sandberg.
Can you think back to yourself in college,
and if you'd known this opportunity was going to happen,
would have just said, yeah, that's about right?
>> I would've been a surprise.
I think with work
and sort of following your passion,
I think anything's possible.
>> I love that.
Well, Sarah, congratulations on the award
and for all of your success at AtScale.
We congratulate you, and we thank you
for stopping by theCUBE.
>> Thank you.
>> Have a great night as well.
>> Thanks.
>> We want to thank you for watching theCUBE.
I am Lisa Martin on the ground at Facebook headquarters.
We'll see you next time.
(upbeat music)